The main goal of this study was to evaluate and to compare the hydrological behavior of small watersheds investigating the influence of the anthropogenic activities and the hydrologic responses due to these activities. The experimental area was composed of two small watersheds denominated B1 and B2. In watershed B1, a treatment (thinning) was applied, eliminating the species with diameters less than 10 cm. The experimental watershed B2 was not submitted to any treatment maintaing the original vegetation. In this investigation a total of 24 rainfall-runoff events were considered, corresponding to the 2009 rainy season as a whole. The results revealed that the thinning of the caatinga generated modifications in the runoff only in the initial rainy season. The growing of herbaceous vegetation attenuated the water flow and reduced the runoff in B1, promoting small changes in response to the applied treatment. There were, however, higher peak discharges in watershed B1 compared with the preserved watershed.
watershed; runoff; thinning; peak discharge
